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National authorities have shut down a company that produced food for nursing homes and hospitals in a cement mixer.

The Danish Food and Veterinary Administration (Fødevarestyrelsen) discovered that the food company Nordic Ingredients violated hygiene rules by producing gelled foods in a cement mixer. The food was delivered to public nursing homes and to hospital patients who have difficulty swallowing whole food.

A Food and Veterinary Administration official said that in addition to producing food in a cement mixer, the hygiene levels at the company’s production facility were abysmal.

“It wasn’t just a bit of mess from the most recent production, and we determined that the cleaning standards were completely inadequate,” Henriette Mynster told DR.

Mynster said that the cement mixer didn’t appear to have been cleaned in between uses.

“It was an orange cement mixer just like bricklayers use. There were layers from previous uses, where bacteria and other micro-organisms can easily hide,” Mynster told Nordjyske.

According to the food authorities, up to a dozen public facilities receive food from Nordic Ingredients. Many of them spent Thursday destroying all food that came from the company.

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Other facilities that have received the cement mixer food include Svendborg Hosptial, Aalborg University Hospital and Vendsyssel Hospital.

Many of the facilities say that they were unaware that the company, which has now been shut down, was not registered with the proper authorities.